(born Dec. 5, 1443, Albisola, republic of Genoa—died Feb. 21, 1513, Rome) Pope (1503–13).
The nephew of Sixtus IV, he fled Rome in 1494 to escape assassination by Alexander VI. Elected pope in 1503, Julius set out to restore the Papal States, subjugating Perugia and Bologna (1508) and defeating Venice (1509) with the aid of the League of Cambrai. His first effort to expel the French from northern Italy failed, but a popular revolt drove them out in 1512, and Parma and Piacenza were added to the Papal States. The greatest art patron of all the popes, Julius was a close friend of Michelangelo, from whom he commissioned the sculpture of Moses and the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. He also commissioned Raphael's Vatican frescoes.
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